Gulnara Suleymanova and her family of five live in a wagon behind Baku’s prestigious new sports stadium, built especially for next month’s European Games.

“On your way here, you might have seen piles of sand, that’s where my husband sieves when there’s no work,” says Suleymanova, who is a cleaner.

The family’s income is about 300 Azerbaijani manats (£184) a month – which is barely enough for food, she says.

Theirs is the story of a family subsisting alongside the ambitious venues constructed for Azerbaijan’s inaugural Games and generously funded by the state oil company Socar. The authoritarian president, Ilham Alyev, a keen enthusiast of the Games, is said to have invested a total of £6.5bn in sports venues and infrastructure.

Organisers are also paying the travel and accommodation expenses of all 6,000 athletes competing in the event, a move condemned by human rights groups as an attempt to whitewash the country’s poor human rights record and endemic corruption.

Last week the government extended the detention of award-winning investigative journalist who had written articles exposing state corruption.

Life in the oilfields

For Suleymanova, the glaring disparity between the luxury stadiums and her family’s daily struggle raises important questions about who the Games will actually benefit.

“It’s cold in the winter, and it doesn’t matter how much you use the heater,” Suleymanova says. “In the summer, it’s terribly hot. We take water from the neighbour. Water, gas, electricity are all one big problem. When it comes to living, you have to experience it yourself in order to understand. It’s hard to describe.”

After 10 years of renting, the family settled in their oilfield wagon behind the stadium. The smell of oil is ubiquitous, but it’s not their biggest problem: they are hungry, thirsty and the health of two of her children is deteriorating.

Two of Suleymanova’s children suffer from health problems. Photograph: Jahangir Youssif/Meydan TV

Suleymanova’s son has a hearing impairment and her daughter has problems with her vision. Each time she sees the stadium she wonders how many children could access medical treatment with the money it cost to build.

“Only 100th of those four billion manats would be enough to treat my child,” she says. “But they didn’t give it to me. Wherever I went, I got nothing.”

‘Everything I have is inside this room’

Suleymanova’s family live in one dim, narrow, room scant with furniture.

“I don’t have a table. I can’t offer you a chair, because I don’t have it,” Suleymanova says. “This is both my living room and bedroom. I don’t have proper curtains. If you ask for a bathroom, we don’t have it either, we shower at the neighbours’ place.”

“I don’t have a kitchen. Everything I have is inside this room,” she adds.

Suleymanova outside her house, otherwise known as a ‘wagon’. Photograph: Jahangir Youssif/Meydan TV

Her requests for government help have fallen on deaf ears. She applied for targeted social assistance but didn’t qualify. “They told me your husband must have a job in a state-funded entity. You need to bring a paper proving that. If I had a job in a public company why would I ever need your social assistance?” she asks.

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“They build sports complexes, construct roads, but who benefits from them? Why don’t they help children? Why don’t they think that there are small children, sick and poor people living in this country? Why don’t they help them?” she asks.